The prisons of the eighteen hundreds were not fit for the prisoners and many reformers began to travel around England trying to make them cleaner, healthier places of detention. These reformers would be comparable to the ministries of today that travel from prison to prison fighting for the inmates' rights. One such reformer was a man named John Howard. He was a philanthropist during the 1700's that fought for the humane treatment of prisoners and the betterment of prisons. He wrote two books about his three year observation of prisons all over England: "State of Prisons," published in 1777 and "Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe," published in 1789. Other reformers included Jeremy Bentham and Elizabeth Fry. According to author Arthur Griffiths, these people fought against the following problems in the prisons:

Even though the reformers fought for years for the advancement of prisons, no significant changes were made.

Back